A Not-Too-Serious Zine for Music & Art

Tag: savana ogburn

Emily was kind enough to send over her killer photos of Diet Cigfrom their show at Boot & Saddle in Philly last week, and Savana doodled on ’em for your viewing pleasure. Check out Diet Cig on tour now and be sure to listen to their new record, Swear I’m Good at This!

You may have caught my not-so-subtle love letter to hair, music, and Paramore on the site last month, and if you did, you know how absolutely in love I am with goodDYEyoung– Paramore frontwoman, Hayley Williams, and her amazing hair and makeup artist, Brian O’Connor’s, brand newhair dye line. It perfectly encapsulates all of the things I love: DIY, music (my favorite band, Paramore, specifically!), and HAIR! So when the sweet as can be goodDYEyoung team reached out about sending Sonic Blume some dye to play around with, we haaaad to say yes!

I thought that since you all have already seen the final product of a GDY hair dye party, it might be helpful to show the process as well. So, without further ado, here is Sonic Blume’s foolproof way to get the rainbow hair you’ve always wanted using goodDYEyoung, and a fun playlist to jam while you’re doin’ it!

Hi guys! It’s been real fun sending the SB team’s heart-contents to ya twice a week for the past few months (and even more fun when you HELD US IN YOUR HANDS, IRL!). We are SO flattered and grateful at/for the love and support you’ve thrown our way- we couldn’t, and wouldn’t, do it without ya!

However, as I (Savana) and a few of our contributors adjust to ~college life~ for the very first time, we need to take a little break from posting on the site. So: Sonic Blume will be operating on a submissions-only basis for the indefinite future!

That means that Sonic Blume is essentially in your hands, dear reader! Since we won’t be posting on a regular schedule, it’s up to you to submit the music-related work that you want the world to see! We’ll be posting your submissions as we have time to, and can’t wait to see the brilliance that you throw our way. No pressure. 🙂

I recently had the opportunity to see one of my favorite bands, The Julie Ruin, at one of my very favorite venues, The Masquerade. Sadly, The Masquerade is on its way out (a loud HISS at the soul suckers who wanna gut it), but they gave us one last hurrah by way of Wrecking Ball fest. I couldn’t have been happier to ~cheers~ to the venue I’ve grown up in by watching TJR play a killer set on the mainstage- I’m in love with their new album, Hit Reset, and was absolutely giddy throughout the entire performance. Highlights included: Kathleen’s intro for “Be Nice” (similar story here, at 3:30), “Mr. So and So“, a cover of Courtney Barnett’s “Pedestrian at Best” that made me wanna weep ’cause I LOVE THAT SONG, and obviously Kenny Mellman’s amazingLisa Frank tee shirt.

Here are a few of my painted film photos from their set (and a couple of other Wrecking Ball festivities). Continue reading →

Since age 4 or 5, I’ve been obsessed with hair. I have vivid memories of pointing out strangers with technicolor locks to my parents and telling them, I’m going to have that hair one day. Throughout the years, this obsession has taken a number of forms: spending a Barnes & Noble gift card from my 7th birthday on a book that instructed me to paint pigmented mascara on each of my strands, buying a platinum blonde Hannah Montana wig at age 9, taking photos upon photos of emo haircuts to my hairdresser to replicate on my poor head at age 13, and religiously flat ironing it ever morning at age 14. I’ve always been fascinated by people with cool hair, especially when it’s rainbow-hued, and this fascination met its match when I found out about the band Paramore.

I’ll be frank- I’m usually pretty guarded. I’m careful to always prioritize protecting my heart and using my mind in all scenarios. But this summer, I learned that you can try to put up walls, but one day, someone will come along and tear them down. Whether a friend or a romance, you’ll connect with an individual on a deep level, even if you thought it was absolutely impossible. For whatever reason, you won’t worry about what you say or how you say it or what you feel. This person will pick at your scabbed heart and will appreciate your beautiful rawness under the scar tissue. And they’ll love you. Perhaps without even realizing it, you’ll be shamelessly open. You’ll live again. And I promise it will be equally exciting as it is terrifying. I cherry picked some songs that to me, capture this feeling of a connectivity I, and maybe you, had previously never known. This summer and this person have taught me that the key to happiness is the willingness to be vulnerable. So put yourself out there and let people in, cautious kids. It will be worth it.

The title of Mattea Pyette’s debut album, Mindless, is the polar opposite of how I’d describe the 17 year old singer-songwriter- Mindless is a beautiful folk-pop album recorded in Pyette’s own DIY recording studio as part of an incredibly ambitious creative writing project. The album is permeated with rich acoustic guitar sounds and raw, emotional lyrics that are instantly relatable for…just about anyone with a heart. Mattea was kind enough to chat with me over the phone and tell me all about her love for music, DIY production, and the artists that inspire her to be the killer musician and lyricist that she is!

Elyss Daya is a 17 year old singer-songwriter from London who has a knack for creating pure, sparkling, indie-electro PERFECTION. The proof is all in her debut EP, Brilliance, which she wrote, recorded, and producedall by herself! From the EP’s eponymous opening track, listeners are met with atmospheric synth sounds which crescendo into a heart-stopping explosion of acoustic guitars and bouncing drum beats, and it only gets better from there. Read on to learn more about Elyss’ songwriting and recording process, where she finds inspiration, and her best tips for overcoming stage fright.

Here at Sonic Blume, we LOVE finding and supporting fellow zines and creators. HERpothesis, Alex Hanson’s amazing zine by and for young women in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math), is one of our absolute favorites! When Alex asked us to collab on HERpothesis’s very own Golden Record project, we were STOKED!

For the past couple of months, I’ve been really thinkin’ hard about the future of Sonic Blume– it turns out that it’s a LOT of work to run a zine by yourself (even with the amazing work that our contributors and readers send us!), and there’s absolutely no way I can continue on at this pace and in this digital format. I’ve considered a bunch of things- posting less, moving strictly to print, or even completely ending Sonic Blume (sooooo dramatic, I know.)

BUT BEHOLD! THE NEW SONIC BLUME!

This will mean that you, dear pal, shall receive 2 amazing ONLINE posts per week! We are still taking submissions for online posts, so no worries! Your platform is intact and ready, as always, for your genius.

BUT THAT’S NOT ALL!

WHAT?! DID YOU READ THAT RIGHT? IS MY TERRIBLE ATTEMPT AT ANIMATION MARRING YOUR VISION?

YES! YOU DID READ IT CORRECTLY!

Also yes. You should probably see an ophthalmologist.

But for real, guys, Sonic Blume is going to be in print! Our first of many quarterly issues will be released this fall (late July to mid-August) and it’s gonna be AWESOME.

SONIC BLUME ISSUE #1 IS AVAILABLE FOR PREORDER NOW! And it only costs $6 domestically (that is, for United States addresses), and $8 internationally, for shipping reasons. There are NO hidden shipping costs, ya’ll. So basically, for the price of a Subway $5 Footlong (including tax and like, some chips maybe?), you can have 20+ PAGES OF PURE MAGIC, INSPIRATION, AND THE COOLEST MUSIC #CONTENT AROUND DELIVERED STRAIGHT TO YOUR MAILBOX! Can you believe it?

If you’d like to contribute to the print zine, by all means, please do! Submit juuuust like normal, and I’ll get back with ya to let you know if it works for print. Can’t wait to hear from ya!

~

Thank you all, times like, seven kajillion, for all of the love you’ve blasted Sonic Blume with for the past two months! It really is appreciated- this site would absolutely not be here without your contributions, whether they’ve been in the form of actual posts for the site or a sweet comment on our social media.